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The Language of Love

As the saying goes, French is the language of love. So, let’s take this opportunity to delve into peoples’ hearts and minds and discuss expressions featuring the theme of love, ever so present in conversations, literature, and songs. 

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Grand Corps Malade sings about le grand amour (true love) in his song "Les Voyages en Train":

 

Le grand amour change forcément ton comportement

True love inevitably changes your behavior

Caption 13, Grand Corps Malade Les Voyages en train

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The masculine noun amour also exists in the plural form, as in the expression la saison des amours, which means "the season of love" when referring to humans:

 

Ah oui, oui, oui, c'est la saison des amours là.

Ah yes, yes, yes, it's the season of love now.

Caption 44, Lionel à Lindre-Basse - Part 5

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And "the mating season" when referring to animals:

 

Et là, c'est la saison des amours là?

And now, it's the mating season now?

Caption 43, Lionel à Lindre-Basse - Part 5

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The term conjoint (mate) applies to both the animal and the human kingdom:

 

Elles trouvent le temps long parce que le conjoint, il tarde à venir là.

They feel that time is moving slowly because their mate is taking his time to arrive now.

Caption 45, Lionel à Lindre-Basse - Part 5

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You'll often come across conjoint (partner/spouse) when filling out an administrative form:

 

L'utilisation du nom du conjoint nécessite certaines démarches.

Adopting a partner’s name requires certain steps.

 

Alternatively, you will also come across the word époux/épouse (spouse) which works in the same way as "spouse" in English—as a slightly more formal alternative to le mari (husband) and la femme (wife):

 

Voilà. Je désire prendre votre fille pour épouse.

Here's the deal. I want to take your daughter as my wife.

Caption 19, Il était une fois: l’Homme 6. Le siècle de Périclès - Part 3

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Vous acceptâtes de me prendre pour époux

You accepted to take me for a husband

Captions 26-27, Oldelaf interprète "Bérénice"

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Speaking of époux, young girls in fairy tales often dream of épouser (marrying) le Prince Charmant (Prince Charming):

 

Seule dans sa chambre elle rêve encore au Prince Charmant

Alone in her room she still dreams of Prince Charming

Caption 8, Wallen Donna

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These days, people might look for their Prince Charming on un site de rencontre (a dating site):

 

Je m'inscris sur un site de rencontre pour retraités.

I'm subscribing to a dating site for retirees.

Caption 12, Le Jour où tout a basculé Mes grands-parents sont infidèles - Part 1

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Of course, faire une rencontre (meeting someone) or rencontrer l’amour (finding love) can happen in any setting, even unusual ones, as Nico can attest in this video:

 

Nico rencontre l'amour à un feu rouge.

Nico finds love at a red light.

Caption 34, Extr@ Ep. 5 - Une étoile est née - Part 8

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With a little luck, Nico may have found une âme sœur (a soulmate):

 

Petites fées du cœur accueillent les âmes sœurs

Little love fairies welcome the soulmates

Captions 25-26, Melissa Mars Music Videos Army of Love

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In any case, Nico and his neighbors Sacha and Annie have a complicated love life. They are all amoureux (in love), but with the wrong people!

 

Elles ont un voisin, Nico, qui est amoureux de Sacha, et Annie est amoureuse de Nico.

They have a neighbor, Nico, who is in love with Sacha, and Annie is in love with Nico.

Captions 3-5, Extr@ Ep. 1 - L'arrivée de Sam - Part 1

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Nico wants Sacha to be sa petite amie (his girlfriend), while Annie wants Nico to be son petit ami (her boyfriend). They could simplify their lives by being amis (just friends), but that's not how love works! The adjective petit (little) is just an endearing term of affection that bears no relation to size at all. It simply implies a more exclusive relationship:

 

Ça va être ta petite amie qui doit être jalouse.

It's your girlfriend who must be jealous.

Caption 20, Le Jour où tout a basculé J'ai piégé mon fan - Part 4

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Instead of using the term petit ami/petite amie, they could have said une petite copine (a girlfriend) or un petit copain (a boyfriend).

 

Traditionally, the next step is to progress from petits amis to mari et femme (husband and wife), and perhaps to sing together, like the couple in the video below:

 

Tout comme sa femme, le mari chante bien.

Just like his wife, the husband sings well.

Caption 56, Le saviez-vous? "Non plus", forme négative de "aussi" - Part 1

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But before jumping into marriage, the pair may first se fiancer (become engaged). Hence the term un fiancé/une fiancée, which English borrowed from French:

 

Comme par exemple... ta fiancée? T'en as une? C'est ça?

Like, for example... your fiancée? You have one? Is that right?

Caption 46, Le Jour où tout a basculé À la recherche de mon père - Part 4

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Fiancés might celebrate their fiançailles (engagement) with an engagement party, though perhaps not as grandiosely as Anne of Austria and Louis the Thirteenth, who had the famous Place des Vosges in Paris built for the occasion:

 

...à l'occasion des fiançailles de Louis Treize et d'Anne d'Autriche.

...on the occasion of the engagement of Louis the Thirteenth and Anne of Austria.

Caption 16, De nouvelles découvertes avec Marion La place des Vosges

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Les fiançailles usually lead to another celebration, the wedding (le mariage or la noce):

 

...à l'occasion de son mariage entre mille huit cent quatre-vingt-douze et mille neuf cent deux.

on the occasion of his wedding, between eighteen ninety-two and nineteen hundred two.

Caption 36, Le Mans TV Mon Village - Malicorne - Part 5

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La noce se fera en automne.

The wedding will take place in the fall. 

 

Two things worth noting about the word un mariage (marriage). It’s spelled with only one r, and it can mean either “wedding” (the ceremony) or “marriage" (the relationship). La noce, however, only means "wedding."

 

While marriage is usually a union based on love, in some cases, a marriage might be un mariage blanc, which literally means “white/blank marriage,” as Patricia explains in her video:

 

Un mariage blanc, c'est un mariage arrangé, ou pas consommé.

A white marriage is an arranged marriage, or not consummated.

Captions 56-57, Le saviez-vous? La couleur blanche et ses expressions - Part 2

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Usually though, a marriage is a happy occasion on which la mariée (the bride) and le mari (the groom) exchange vows:

 

La mariée et le marié sont aussi au rendez-vous

The bride and the groom are also at the rendez-vous

Caption 16, Amadou et Mariam Beaux dimanches

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Many newlyweds (nouveaux mariés) go on une lune de miel (honeymoon):

 

Celle-là, c'était l'année de notre rencontre. Et notre lune de miel.

That one was the year we met. And our honeymoon.

Captions 35-36, Le Jour où tout a basculé À la recherche de mon passé - Part 3

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Of course, le mariage is not everyone’s cup of tea. Some people may decide to vivre en couple (to live together as a couple) instead. The word couple can refer to the number of people in the relationship, as in English, or to the relationship itself:

 

Notre couple allait mal.

Our relationship was going badly.

Caption 57, Le Jour où tout a basculé À la recherche de mon passé - Part 8

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Finally, those who remain unattached are called célibataires (single), like the lady mentioned in this video:

 

Et elle est toujours célibataire.

And she's still single.

Caption 90, Le Jour où tout a basculé À la recherche de mon passé - Part 5

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On November 25th, la Sainte-Catherine (Saint Catherine’s Day), single, unmarried young girls celebrate their catherinette by saying a special prayer for a suitor, before they reach the age of twenty-five. 

 

As much as le grand amour (true love) may seem like the perfect recipe for happiness, one cannot vivre d’amour et d’eau fraiche (live on love alone). On the other hand, as the Beatles' song goes, all you need is love!

 
Vocabulary

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Idiomatic Animals

While discussing pigeons in Paris with his friend Lea, Lionel brings up an amusing French idiom referencing those ubiquitous city birds:

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Alors se faire pigeonner en français,

So "se faire pigeonner" [to be taken for a ride] in French

c'est vraiment se faire arnaquer,

is really to get ripped off,

se faire avoir par une personne

to be had by a person

qui vous a soutiré de l'argent.

who has extracted money from you.

Captions 54-58, Lea & Lionel L - Le parc de Bercy

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Se faire pigeonner literally means "to be taken for a pigeon." In English too, "a pigeon" can refer to someone who's gullible or easily swindled. Pigeons get a bad rap in both languages! 

 

Let's take a look at some more animal expressions and idioms used in Yabla videos. Here's another bird-related one:

 

Oui. J'avoue être un peu poule mouillée.

Yes. I admit to being a bit of a wet hen [a wimp].

Caption 23, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Notre appartement est hanté

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Calling someone poule mouillée is equivalent to calling them "chicken." A slightly less pejorative poultry-inspired moniker is un canard:

 

Qu'ils me disent que je m'affiche,

That they'll say that I am showing off,

qu'ils me traitent de canard

that they'll call me a duck [a slave to love]

Captions 6-7, Grand Corps Malade - Comme une évidence

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Un canard is a person who's so lovestruck they'll do whatever their partner desires. Believe it or not, it's also a slang term for "newspaper." There's even a famous French newspaper called Le Canard enchaîné (The Chained Duck), which Lionel discusses in a few other videos

 

Don't confuse canard with cafard, the word for "cockroach." When used metaphorically, cafard means "depression" or "the blues":

 

Mon cafard me lâche moins souvent qu'autrefois...

My blues don't let me go as much as before...

Caption 8, Debout Sur Le Zinc - Les mots d'amour

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The expression avoir le cafard means "to be depressed," or literally, "to have the cockroach." And there's the adjective cafardeux/cafardeuse, which can mean either "depressing" or "depressed." Encountering a cockroach in your home can certainly be depressing, to say the least!

 

Though dogs are as beloved in France as they are in other countries, the word chien (dog) typically means "bad" or "nasty" when used as an adjective:

 

Fais demain quand le présent est chien

Make tomorrow when the present is bad

Caption 3, Corneille - Comme un fils

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You'll find chien in a couple of idioms involving bad weather, such as un temps de chien (nasty weather) and un coup de chien (a storm):

 

On va avoir un coup de chien, regarde!

We're going to have a dog's blow [stormy weather], look!

Caption 55, Il était une fois: les Explorateurs - 10. Amerigo Vespucci

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You can also say un temps de cochon (pig weather) instead of un temps de chien:

 

Et aujourd'hui on a pas un temps de cochon par contre.

And today we don't have pig weather [rotten weather] however.

Caption 22, Lionel - La Cathédrale de Toul

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In American English, "pigs" is a slang term for "cops." But the French call them vaches (cows):

 

Mort aux vaches, mort aux cons!

Death to the cows ["pigs," i.e., cops], death to the jerks!

Caption 5, Patrice Maktav - La Rue

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Finally, they don't celebrate April Fools' Day in France, but rather "April Fish":

 

En tout cas j'espère que ce n'est pas un poisson d'avril.

In any event, I hope that it's not an April fish [April fool].

Caption 21, Lionel - à Lindre-Basse

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You can find out more about the poisson d'avril tradition here. And be sure to check out Manon and Clémentine's video Mots et animaux to learn some more expressions featuring cats, dogs, and wolves.